My very first round failed to feed. I looked closely before ejecting it and saw that the rubber plug was dragging on the feed ramp. It looked like it might have been a bit out of spec though since it was protruding out of the cavity far enough to make contact. That was the only one that failed out of 50 rounds, but I’m back with standard open cavity hollow points. That is the only round (of thousands) that has failed to feed in that pistol. Take this with a grain of salt, I was surprised when it happened but there are always two sides to every story.

I know a lot advocate shooting 500+ rounds. Sadly, for many of us, it’s just not feasible.

500 rounds of premium ammo at $30-$40/box of 50 = $300-$400. Want to test 4-5 brands and you’re looking at a $1,000. Have 2-3 carry guns and soon it’s thousands.

It’s hard when we find that we must rely on and trust the marketing of a company.

—

That said, it could very well be that you had one bad mis-shapen round. Truthfully, this is possible with any manufacture run. And is a good reminder to observe and inspect all of one’s ammunition before use.

A test firing of Hornady’s Critical Defense ammo in .38 +P
(prior to using it in my carry gun), had 5 misfires out of 25
rounds loaded. A careful examination of the misfires indicated
their primers were struck in the center and the indentations were
identical in shape and depth to the 20 rounds that fired correctly.
Four of the misfires were subjected to an additional firing attempt
and again failed to fire. A subsequent 15 rounds of Remington
Golden Saber ammo (fired immediately after these failures) all
fired without issue. This just reinforces the importance of test
firing your self-defense ammo prior to needing it. While this was
arguably not an extensive test of Hornady ammo, I’ll avoid carrying
Hornady until they can be proven more effective than firing 80% of
the time.